Having grown up in Baltimore and lived most of his adult life in Washington, Michael Oberman always considered himself a city guy. The former rock critic-turned-music industry pro has found Columbia, where he moved 10 years ago, a bit, well … slow.
Which is why he's looking forward to a proposal to redevelop the planned community with thousands of new homes, hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail space and millions of square feet of office space — all of it around the Mall at Columbia.
"Bring on the development," said Oberman, 63 and now a nature photographer. "Absolutely bring on the development."
The plan by General Growth Properties to revitalize Columbia mirrors efforts in similar communities across the country, where builders are working to attract residents, retailers and other businesses with urban-style development focused not around city centers but suburban shopping malls.
What was once a novelty has become the future. In Maryland, Towson Town Center, Arundel Mills in Hanover, The Avenue at White Marsh and the Mall at Columbia have all used shopping, dining and entertainment to lure condominiums and other development.
"People want the mixed-use urban lifestyle, but they don't necessarily want to be in downtown Baltimore or Washington," said John McIlwain, a fellow of the Urban Land Institute.
"I think it's a very positive move because it provides for a much more compact development, much less car usage," said McIlwain, author of a recent paper on the future of housing in America. "[But] whether it's positive or negative is not the point. The point is: That's where the market is going."
So Gregory F. Hamm hopes. Hamm, a vice president of Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc., says the firm's redevelopment plan is philosophically in tune with the vision of Columbia creator James Rouse.
"Downtown Columbia has the opportunity, because of its regional mall, plus its strong job-growth drivers, that we believe can get all the elements working well," Hamm said. "When they do work well, from a business perspective, it's very beneficial. From a community perspective, it's extremely beneficial."
General Growth Properties, which became Columbia's master developer when it purchased the Rouse Co. in 2004, has proposed building up to 5,500 residential units, 1.25 million square feet of retail space and 4.3 million square feet of office space, plus a couple of hotels, other cultural centers and transportation upgrades around the mall. Saddled with $27 billion in debt, the company filed for bankruptcy in April 2009, but is close to a reorganization plan, and officials say the Columbia plans are on track.
Marsha McLaughlin, Howard County's director of planning, sees General Growth Properties seizing an opportunity in Maryland.
"Part of it is trying to create a different type of opportunity downtown [in Columbia] for people who want to live in that environment," she said. "There are also empty-nesters that don't want to keep up the big house and want to be someplace where they can go out and do stuff. If you live in your single-family home, you still might want to come out for dinner or a show or whatever."
McLaughlin, who has worked in Howard County for 22 years, said the fact that most malls are shutting their doors by 10 p.m. means additional development is necessary to attract new visitors and residents.
"From a young person's standpoint, it's not a particularly happening place," McLaughlin said. "I think [the Mall at Columbia] represents a very successful suburban mall, but it has its limitations. It doesn't do everything.
"You look at the success Baltimore's had in terms of attracting younger people back to many neighborhoods, particularly the waterfront areas, it's because there are things that are going on that are exciting. We don't do a great job of attracting young people back into Howard County and Columbia."
Not everyone in Columbia wants more to do. When Andrew Ohu moved from Bethesda into a brand-new condominium across from the mall three years ago, he liked the idea of a quieter, less crowded environment with easy access to shopping and other amenities.
With redevelopment, Ohu says, Columbia will begin to resemble the busier community he left. He now walks to work, but he's concerned about the increased traffic. His fiancee, who grew up in the Kings Contrivance village of Columbia, doesn't want to see green space disappear. "I don't think Columbia needs a skyline," Jaime Kemper said.
Oberman, who has attended many of the zoning meetings involving the redevelopment plan, is well-versed in both sides of the debate.
"The main schools are [saying]: 'We don't want development, bring back our village centers, put a Giant in the Wilde Lake Village Center,' … and people like me who say, 'So we've got a mall. You can't find a parking space there on a Saturday.' "
Like it or not, Oberman says, development has come to Columbia.
"Whatever General Growth Properties have planned — whether it is completed or not — is vibrant," he said. "Columbia has turned into a place where you can go to Best Buy, you can go to Costco, you can go to Walmart. I don't think that's what James Rouse envisioned, but that's the facts of life. The old-school Columbia wants a village center that you can walk to, shop at, walk home. These people are 80 years old now."
Hamm acknowledges the resistance among some longtime residents.
"There was a vision of planning and a social vision that accompanied Jim Rouse's plan, and that rightly is respected by people who have lived here a long time," he said. "It might be hard to imagine it different."
But McIlwain, of the Urban Land Institute, described the redevelopment plan as the "evolution of [Rouse's] vision."
"The concept of a suburban town center has evolved into a much more urban framework, a much more urban style," MclIwain said. "This is consistent with Rouse's vision of having suburban town centers. It's a totally different kind of suburban town center. He was building to the market then, and he would have quickly adopted this model because he was very sensitive to the market, and the market has changed."
McIlwain says underutilized malls make an obvious focus for growing communities.
"You can take the land, you can take the parking, you can take these low-level buildings," he said. "And then you can reconfigure the whole thing into high-rise, structured parking and a walkable, compact area."
Design and traffic also matter, according to Baltimore County planning director Arnold F. "Pat" Keller. He points to The Avenue at White Marsh as an example of a project that created a Main Street, small-town feel, but didn't draw enough customers to win immediate success.
"Simply putting up high-rise condos and apartments in the parking lot is not going to create that community that people find desirable," Keller said. "That's a critical thing, you have to differentiate between mixed-use residential, office, retail; it has to be laid out in a Main Street concept so you have that integration as you would have in a little village or town."
Keller points out Towson Town Center as a success story.
"The fact that a so-called 'downtown' shopping mall survives is really amazing if you think about it," he said. "A lot of it had to do with public transportation, it had to do with walkability. I think it's not something that's going to come and go. I think it's here to stay."
Maryland planners have worked for decades to encourage growth in already-developed areas as a way to preserve their rural places. Howard County officials see the Columbia project as an important piece of that strategy.
Still, McLaughlin said, there are limits.
"I've heard people say, 'I love to go to Bethesda, I love to go to Silver Spring, but I don't want that in Columbia,'" she said. "We're not envisioning that kind of intensity."
Oberman, who called Columbia "the most moribund place where I've ever lived," echoes McLaughlin's talk of a middle ground.
"I say develop, develop and develop," he said. "But I don't want this to become another Bethesda, where there's 200 restaurants and no place to park."
The growth of communities around suburban shopping malls comes as urban advocates try to draw people back into cities.
Anna Custer is executive director of LiveBaltimore, a nonprofit that promotes living and working in the city. While she doesn't oppose the development of mall-centric communities, she says they are no substitute for the real, urban neighborhoods of Maryland's largest city.
"I think developers are trying all kinds of new things, because the same-old, same-old hasn't been working," Custer said.
Suburban planners say it's not a zero-sum game.
"I don't know if you're necessarily robbing Peter to pay Paul," said Keller, the Baltimore County planning director. "There's a certain amount of growth and development that will come in each jurisdiction."
"The objective is not to compete with downtown Baltimore," said Kim Flowers, deputy planning director in Howard County. "Columbia is never going to be downtown Baltimore — nor strives to be, I don't think.
"These are both unique places that are assets in their own way."